Earlier in the month, the authorities enforced a ban on the sale of red roses and other symbols used in many countries to mark Valentine’s Day.

The ban is partly because of the connection with a “pagan Christian holiday”, and also because the festival itself is seen as encouraging relations between the sexes outside marriage, punishable by law in the kingdom.

I wonder . . . is this what is going to happen in Kuwait? So like they segregate the university. . . then they segregate all the schools, EVEN THE PRIVATE SCHOOLS, so there is no choice. . . then they start patrolling the malls?

I lived in Saudi Arabia, and I remember the mutawaaeen were NOT police, but sometimes they took on the prerogatives of the police. So I have to wonder, like who made the arrest in the malls? Was it the police? Was it the mutawa hitting the boys with their little sticks? Did they call the boys parents? I have SO many questions!

“Ummm, errrr. . . .is her campaign foundering or floundering?” I asked my very-intelligent-almost-a-doctor friend and she matter of factly and crisply said that it could be either, her campaign may be gasping and dying like a fish out of water, or approaching failure.

Don’t you wish you knew all those things? I do. I have to look them up all the time.

Founder has a lot of meanings. The one I was looking for is in bold type:

stagger: walk with great difficulty; “He staggered along in the heavy snow”

any of various European and non-European marine flatfish

behave awkwardly; have difficulties; “She is floundering in college”
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Flounder are flatfish that live in ocean waters ie., Northern Atlantic and waters along the east coast of the United States and Canada, and the Pacific Ocean, as well. The name “flounder” refers to several geographically and taxonomically distinct species. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flounder

Flounder is an Disney character that appeared in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. He is Ariel’s best friend. Ironically, he is not a flounder, but is more similar in appearance to a Regal Tang or similar fish.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flounder (The Little Mermaid)

I guess I can use either floundering or foundering, but now that I think of it, floundering will always remind me of a big flat fish, so I think I will try to think of founder.

It is a shivery 5°C/45° F in Kuwait this morning, made more shivery by a brisk wind that blows and makes all the flags along the roads, hanging from apartments, decorating villas, etc. flap dramatically in the wind. I am hoping that National Day and Liberation Day holidays will make the roads less travelled as I zoom around, but I have been warned to steer clear of the Gulf Road, where youngsters are spraying cars with colored spaghetti and foam.

No more sandstorm, thank God, although there still seems to be grit in the air; your face feels dry and covered with an invisible coating when you come inside.

The sunrise this morning was beautiful – sharp, clear and, when I ran to get the camera, it was pink, but by the time I got back 15 seconds later, it had gone more orange: